As of this morning, PHMDC reported a net increase of 121 COVID cases, bringing the county’s cumulative total to 40,610. Overall new weekly cases in the county have continued to drop this morning by 35.9 percent over the past two weeks, according to today’s dashboard update. For the past seven days, the county has averaged 11.4 cases per 100,000 residents per day. Active cases though remained at two percent this morning, overall numbers increased slightly to 779 total cases currently active.
The total number of deaths from COVID-19 for Dane County grew by five this morning to 278. From the five deaths, one person was Asian, and ages ranged from someone in their 30s, one person in their 50s, one person in their 70s, and two people in their 80s. Of the five deaths, only one is attributed to the month of February, with a total of 11 deaths for that month. Two more deaths have been attributed to January – now with a total of 48 – and two to December’s total – now at 89. About 64 percent of deaths in Dane County from COVID-19 have been adults older than 80.
According to their update yesterday afternoon, UW is averaging 6,736.4 tests a day for the past seven days as of March 1 for on-campus testing while cases are now averaging 27.3 – slightly higher than yesterday’s 25.4 cases per day. For the past seven days, cases have decreased for UW students and staff about 52 percent while testing on campus has also decreased about 3.7 percent. The positivity rate for on campus testing for staff and students has remained at 0.4 percent for the past seven days. Seven days ago, the positivity rate for campus was at .9 percent.
Dane County’s 14-day positive test rate as of February 27 has remained at 1.0 while the seven-day rate has remained at 0.8. These rates do not include preliminary data from the past four days as that data continues to adjust as more tests are attributed.
For Dane County residents, the number of people ever hospitalized for COVID-19 has grown to 1,243. Currently, there are now 29 people currently hospitalized in area hospitals – including those who live in and outside of Dane County – with 8 of those in the ICU.
Public Health of Madison and Dane County also announced yesterday Emergency Order #14 which outlines updated guidelines for gatherings, sports, and other activities, along with new metrics to measure and determine future orders – which will take effect as of March 10.
Included in the plan are updates to gathering limits, restaurant capacity, and the school protective measure policy requirements as well as sports and businesses. Most notable:
- Restaurants are able to open capacity to 50 percent
- Indoor gatherings without food can limit attendance to 350 without counting employees, and with food, to 150 without counting employees while maintaining six feet of distance and face coverings.
- Outdoor gathering is limited to 500 individuals while maintaining six feet of distance. Anything with more than 50 people would require face coverings.
- Taverns indoor dine-in capacity is now at 25% with approved seating capacity and tables/chairs at least six feet apart between customers who are not members of the same household.
More comprehensive data for vaccinations is updated every Wednesday and Friday per week, for Dane County by age, race and ethnicity. The data is retrieved from the Wisconsin Immunization Registry for all adults and children within the state. The release and the information on the dashboard does warn that some of this information may be incorrect or incomplete as the data is not updated as soon as someone is vaccinated or double checked as consistently as other data gathered.
Today, PHMDC announced 7,9000 Johnson & Johnson vaccinations would be given to teachers at Alliant Energy starting March 8th. Also announced today, MMSD said it would administer 1,200 vaccines in a mass clinic next week Friday at La Follette High School, with another clinic to administer the second doses on April 9.
As of Wednesday morning, about 101,280 people have received at least one dose of vaccine — 18.5 percent of all Dane County residents — while 64,761, or 11.8 percent of all residents, have completed both doses. Of those 101,280 residents, 68.3 percent are 65 and older while those aged 35-44 were 15.9 percent of those who received at least one vaccination. Vaccination data is broken down between those who are 16 – 65+. No data for children is available as the vaccinations have not yet been approved for those under 15.
From all those who have been vaccinated, 2.2 percent are Hispanic or Latinx – down from last Friday’s reported 2.3 percent. Hispanic/Latinx people make up seven percent of the county and are underrepresented in those being vaccinated. Black people, who make up about six percent of the population, only make up 2.4 percent of those who’ve received at least one dose of vaccine – down as well from Friday’s reported 2.5. Asian people, who make up 6 percent of the county population, only make up 2.7 percent of those who have received at least one vaccination – remaining at the same percentage as last Friday. Those who are American Indian/Alaskan Native and are .5 percent of the population also remain at .5 percent of those who have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
Madison365 has updated our weekly map of COVID-19 cases in the county by census tract.
We will have an update later this afternoon for statewide numbers.
